Survey: Health/beauty retailers have fewest online navigation attributes

Austin, Texas --The retail segment with the lowest average of categories for online navigation is health and beauty, with only brand, price and features as the three most common attributes. A recent study based on an audit of 220 websites across 10 retail segments by online navigation technology provider Edgecase shows that other low-performing retail segments include home furnishings, apparel and accessories with an average of only three attribute categories.



Online retail websites in the electronics segment offer the highest number of attribute options with an average of seven categories that, aside from price and brand, include mega-pixels, condition and features.



The survey also found that much of the critical data that shoppers desire already exists, but it is dispersed “here and there” across a retailer’s site in the form of product pages, user guides, customer reviews, social media and videos.



“The typical online shopping experience is shockingly poor, where a 5% conversion rate is considered fantastic and less than 60% cart abandonment is seen as a breakthrough,” said Garrett Eastham, CEO, Edgecase. “What’s missing in the online store is humanity. In order to facilitate greater online sales conversions, retailers need to identify the gaps in shopper communication and work to create a common language between merchandisers and the individual.”